People who bought this also bought...

The Tao Te Ching

The Tao Te Ching is perfect for those who would like to delve deeper into the intriguing nature of the Tao and to gain a deeper understanding of life and the nature of reality. This series of meditations is also a great way to gain a better understanding of ancient Chinese beliefs. In ancient China, Tao, also known as the Way, is believed to be the guiding light of the soul and the very source of existence. For generations, the Tao Te Ching had drawn scholars from around the world, including those who sought understand human existence.

The Idiot

Prince Lyov Nikolayevitch Myshkin is one of the great characters in Russian literature. Is he a saint or just naïve? Is he an idealist or, as many in General Epanchin's society feel, an "idiot"? Certainly his return to St. Petersburg after years in a Swiss clinic has a dramatic effect on the beautiful Aglaia, youngest of the Epanchin daughters, and on the charismatic but willful Nastasya Filippovna. As he paints a vivid picture of Russian society, Dostoyevsky shows how principles conflict with emotions - with tragic results.

Notes from the Underground

A predecessor to such monumental works such as Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, Notes From Underground represents a turning point in Dostoyevsky's writing towards the more political side.

In this work, we follow the unnamed narrator of the story, who, disillusioned by the oppression and corruption of the society in which he lives, withdraws from that society into the underground.

The Idiot

Young Prince Mishkin is that rare thing - a "completely beautiful human being". He is honest, humble, generous, and selfless, but unfortunately these traits mean he is often mistaken for an idiot. Upon his return to St. Petersburg, after being away at a Swiss sanatorium for the treatment of epilepsy, Prince Mishkin is taken under the wing of the wife of General Yepanchin, who arranges for him to live with the family of her money-obsessed friend Ganya.

Poor People

This gloomy book is written in the form of letters exchanged between two cousins, Makar Devushkin and Varvara Dobroselova, who live on the same street in a shockingly deprived part of St. Petersburg Russia. Makar is a lowly clerk, who is being bullied at work and lives in the screened-off corner of someone else's kitchen and Varvara has taken in sewing as a means of avoiding falling into prostitution to make money. Their friendship is touching and sentimental, but it begins to suffer.

Crime and Punishment

In this intense detective thriller instilled with philosophical, religious, and social commentary, Dostoevsky studies the psychological impact upon a desperate and impoverished student when he murders a despicable pawnbroker, transgressing moral law to ultimately "benefit humanity".

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Thus Spoke Zarathustra is the fictional account of the travels and teaching of the prophet Zarathustra. One of the more controversial aspects of Nietzsche's work is that he puts forth the idea of human evolution and the transformation of modern humans from their ape-like ancestors. Nietzsche inserts a number of controversial ideas into his fictional account of Zarathustra, including some reoccurring themes such as the superman, a self-mastered individual.

In this masterpiece, Solzhenitsyn has orchestrated thousands of incidents and individual histories into one narrative of unflagging power and momentum. Written in a tone that encompasses Olympian wrath, bitter calm, savage irony, and sheer comedy, it combines history, autobiography, documentary, and political analysis as it examines in its totality the Soviet apparatus of repression from its inception following the October Revolution of 1917.

Politics

In Politics, Aristotle discusses a variety of different regimes, and methods of community, organizing that would ensure success for the many, providing a convincing argument on the usefulness of Democracy. He also goes into some detail on the structures of different types of governments, including dictatorships, monarchies, and constitutional democracies.

David Copperfield

David Copperfield is the charming tale of a young boy's journey from an impoverished childhood in Victorian England to a renowned novelist. The story of David Copperfield brings to life some of the most beloved and notorious Dickens characters, including the wicked stepfather, Edward Murdstone; David's friend, Tommy Traddles; Agnes; and the bookkeeper Uriah Heep.

The Gambler

Alexei Ivanovich is a Russian tutor working in Germany. His employer, the General, is waiting for his wealthy grandmother to die to pay off his debts so that he can marry Mademoiselle Blanche, while Alexei is in love with the General's beautiful but not so kind stepdaughter, Polina, who is scornful of his devotion to her. Alexei dramatically offers to kill himself for Polina, but she asks him instead to place a bet for her at the roulette table of the local casino. Alexei does, and he wins, but still he cannot sway her.

Resurrection

When Prince Dmitri Nekhludov is called for jury duty on a murder case, he little knows how the experience will change his life. Faced with the accused, a prostitute, he recognizes Katusha, the young girl he seduced and abandoned many years before, and realizes his responsibility for the life of degradation she has been forced to lead. His determination to make amends leads him into the darkest reaches of the Tsarist prison system, and to the beginning of his spiritual regeneration.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky is a titanic figure among the world's great authors, and The Brothers Karamazov is often hailed as his finest novel. A masterpiece on many levels, it transcends the boundaries of a gripping murder mystery to become a moving account of the battle between love and hate, faith and despair, compassion and cruelty, good and evil.

The Complete Essays of Montaigne

One of the most remarkable figures of the Renaissance, Michel de Montaigne was a brilliant French philosopher and statesman whose work directly influenced René Descartes, Friedrich Nietzsche, Isaac Asimov and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He was a humanist and a sceptic, with an insatiable and wide-ranging curiosity. In 1571, on his 38th birthday, he withdrew from public life and retired to the library in his castle tower, where he assembled a body of work that is still highly relevant today.

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, The Story of Aladdin, and The Voyages of Sinbad

Three of the most popular stories from ancient Persia come to life in one action-packed, magical audiobook. The story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves is about two brothers, one who marries a rich woman out of greed, and the other marries a poor woman out of love. The story gets its name from when the brothers are faced with 40 thieves who try to take their treasure.

Beyond Good and Evil

Continuing where Thus Spoke Zarathustra left off, Nietzsche's controversial work Beyond Good and Evil is one of the most influential philosophical texts of the 19th century and one of the most controversial works of ideology ever written. Attacking the notion of morality as nothing more than institutionalised weakness, Nietzsche criticises past philosophers for their unquestioning acceptance of moral precepts. Nietzsche tried to formulate what he called "the philosophy of the future".

The Idiot [Blackstone]

Prince Myshkin, is thrust into the heart of a society more concerned with wealth, power, and sexual conquest than the ideals of Christianity. Myshkin soon finds himself at the center of a violent love triangle in which a notorious woman and a beautiful young girl become rivals for his affections. Extortion, scandal, and murder follow, testing the wreckage left by human misery to find "man in man."

Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland

Ordinary Men is the true story of Reserve Police Batallion 101 of the German Order Police, which was responsible for mass shootings as well as roundups of Jewish people for deportation to Nazi death camps in Poland in 1942. Browning argues that most of the men of RPB 101 were not fanatical Nazis but, rather, ordinary middle-aged working-class men who committed these atrocities out of a mixture of motives, including the group dynamics of conformity, deference to authority, role adaptation, and the altering of moral norms to justify their actions.

Le Pere Goriot

Honoré de Balzac uses his classic style of detail to describe a most controversial setting in his novel Le Pere Goriot. The story takes place in Paris just after the fall of Napoleon in 1819. The story focuses on three characters, Rastignac, a student who wants to try and make it big in the capital, Vautrin, an interesting and funny character who is also quite mysterious, and the main character, Goriot, that carries a heavy burden that only a loving parent would endure.

The Road to Wigan Pier

When Orwell went to England in the 30's to find out how industrial workers lived, he not only observed but shared in their experiences. He stayed in cramped, dreary lodgings and subsisted on the scant, cheerless diet of the poor. He went down into the coal mines and walked crouching, as the miners did, through a one- to three-mile passage too low to stand up in. He watched the back-breaking, dangerous labor of men whose net pay then averaged $575 a year.

The Possessed

Loosely based on sensational press reports of a Moscow student’s murder by fellow revolutionists, The Possessed depicts the destructive chaos caused by outside agitators who move into a provincial town. The enigmatic Stavrogin dominates the novel. His magnetic personality influences his tutor, the liberal intellectual poseur Stepan Verhovensky, and the teacher’s revolutionary son Pyotr, as well as other radicals.

The Financier

Set in 18th century Philadelphia, the book follows Frank as he amasses a large fortune through stock speculation and purchases of shares in the growing street railway industry. He marries an older woman and has two children and uses his new found wealth to become socially prominent. Things however take a turn for the worst when he has an affair with Aileen Butler, the daughter of a politically prominent Irish industrialist.

Fathers and Sons

When Arkady Petrovich comes home from college, his father finds his eager, naive son changed almost beyond recognition, for the impressionable Arkady has fallen under the powerful influence of the friend he has brought with him. A self-proclaimed nihilist, the ardent young Bazarov shocks Arkady's father by criticising the landowning way of life and by his outspoken determination to sweep away the traditional values of contemporary Russian society.

The Critique of Pure Reason

Published in 1797, the Critique of Pure Reason is considered to be one of the foremost philosophical works ever written. In the Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant explores the foundation of human knowledge and its limits, as well as man's ability to engage in metaphysics.

Publisher's Summary

Exiled to four years in Siberia, but hailed by the end of his life as a saint, prophet, and genius, Fyodor Dostoevsky holds an exalted place among the best of the great Russian authors. One of Dostoevsky’s five major novels, Devils follows the travails of a small provincial town beset by a band of modish radicals - and in so doing presents a devastating depiction of life and politics in late 19th-century Imperial Russia. Both a grotesque comedy and a shocking illustration of clashing ideologies, Dostoevsky’s famed novel stands as an undeniable masterpiece.

"Devils" (formerly translated as "The Possessed," and sometimes translated as "Demons") is one of Dostoevsky's four great long novels, the others being "Crime and Punishment," "The Idiot," and "The Brothers Karamazov."

First, don't by the version narrated by Patrick Cullen and titled "The Possessed." The narration is poor and the translation is the outdated one by Constance Garnett.

"Devils" is a very political novel and was intended to be so. In order to appreciate it, you should do a little research on the 1869 murder by the Russian revolutionary Nechayev. One of the two lead characters, Peter Stephanovich Verkhovensky, a creepy Charles Manson type, is based on Nechayev. The Wikipedia article on "Demons" is short and informative. It also helps to know a little about Dostoevsky's background because several elements are autobiographical. Last, you might want to print a list of characters because, like all Russian novels, the many patronymic names can be confusing, especially if you're listening. If you do these things you'll experience the full effect.

The plot centers on some brutal, political murders. The setting is the run-up to the Bolshevik Revolution. Lenin and company didn't come out of nowhere. Trouble had been brewing in Russia for some time. "Devils" places events in context. Like all of Dostoevsky's works, the plot is deeply psychological, though there is quite a bit of dry humor and irony (items that are often missed in Dostoevsky's works because the original translator, Constance Garnett, tended to homogenize his phrases). If you're into this thing, "Devils" is a gripping novel.

The narrator is the very accomplished George Guidall. I've listened to many of his readings, such as his outstanding performances in "Crime and Punishment" and "Don Quixote." George is perfect for "Demons." His sharp characterizations, timing, and overall feel are perfect. He has a Slavic background and takes great pride in reading the Russian greats.

Last, I can't say enough good things about this 1992 translation by Russian Studies Professor Michael R. Katz of Middlebury College. Professor Katz reinserts Dostoevsky's intentionally quirky sentence structure which was sadly washed out by earlier translators. I've read that some critics think Doestoevsky wasn't a great stylist as was Tolstoy and others. In my opinion, that's only because early translators failed to pick up his nuances. Dostoevsky was a very careful writer. Many of his supposedly awkward sentences, when carefully translated, reveal great wit and style. I compared Professor Katz's translation to others, such as the acclaimed translation by Pevear and Volokhonsky, and feel that Professor Katz's is the best going.

"Devils" is a great listen if you're willing to put in the time and effort.

Would you consider the audio edition of Devils to be better than the print version?

This is like comparing apples and oranges.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Devils?

Stavrogin's confession. Pyotr Stepanovich's death scene.

Have you listened to any of George Guidall’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

George Guidall's reading is superb. I listened to his reading of Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich and thought this reading every bit as good as that. He imbues his characters with all the life and inner tension that make Dostoevsky's writing so engrossing.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Not a chance. It's too rich and complex to be taken in all at once.

Any additional comments?

Devils takes a long time to really get going as a novel. Dostoevsky was well aware of this problem, but doesn't seem to have found a solution, although he himself may have been satisfied with the final result. Don't give up on it, though. By the 1/3 mark, the novel finally hits its stride and never lets up until the end. There are enough haunting and beautiful scenes, not to mention some harrowing and grotesque ones, to make this one of Dostoevsky's most memorable novels.

How the Hell do I adequately review this? Once someone hits a certain genius with writing (or other forms of art), it is impossible to really grade their art. How could one grade Beethoven's great symphonies? Is Demons/Devils/the Possessed better than Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot? Tell me, do you prefer Matthew, Mark, Luke or John?

Dostoyevsky is writing the gospels man*. Greatness is not a bolus of achievement or a gout of acclaim. It just is. Each of Dostoyevsky's big novels is a piece that is both infinitely frustrating and beautifully perfect at the same time. There was probably more to love (for me) in Brothers Karamazov, but it didn't flow as easily as Demons, but still gah, still I think I love Demons more. No, Brothers K. No. Gah!.

Desert Island book? Forced to pick? To HELL with you I'm taking both or trade my food of foot or future for the second (sealed) book. IT IS that good.

Demons is what you get when you mix a writer who is a philosopher on par with the thinking greats, a writer who is a psychologist on par with the behavioral greats, a writer who is a preacher on par with the moral greats. Oh, and you better damn sure make this writer is hypergraphic.

OK. I'm going to have to calm down, let this stew and seep, think some, sip some, and return and revise. This captures some of the energy I felt closing this book, but doesn't even come close to demanding from me what this book deserves.

Dostoevsky is a master of seeing into the human soul. The way he portrays those precursors to the Bolsheviks give me an eerie feeling. When he describes the ultimate goal of the Devils that descended upon the little town, it was almost as if he was describing the general moral decay we see in our own society.

I'm seven hours in, and so far I get the sense that FD is playing a joke on the reader. Listening to this is like watching an interminable Seinfeld episode being broadcast in a language you don't know with no subtitles. Normally I'd be all about satire, but never has a story been more expertly crafted to lead the reader into hopeless confusion. Since it's FD, I have to believe it was intentional, but that doesn't make it palatable.

Beautiful, expressive, yet understated reading that does full justice to the irony in the writing. A troubling book that's political satire, dark comedy and a full parade of drama queens! Prescient of the horrors to come in Russia. Totally absorbing.

Was looking for a long book to pass the time during my commute. Read "The Brothers K" and enjoyed it so thought I'd try "Devils". All the way through I kept waiting for the story to grab hold of me but it never did.

This very long book was brought to life by the excellent reading. Beautifully read and one that I would never have finished reading if it were not read to me as an audio book. I finally have an understanding of the genius of Dostoyevsky.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

MR J.

2/28/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"Complex, intriguing classic"

Probably the hardest to follow of his 4 post-Siberia novels - recommend a character list to refer to. Still, insightful and deep, fascinating group of characters but overall quite "gloomy" given the lack of any fully likeable heroes. Narration is OK - not as distinctive as Constantine Gregory.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Report Inappropriate Content

If you find this review inappropriate and think it should be removed from our site, let us know. This report will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action.